supper and then never appear. Justice shall be exacted;--you shall
reimburse me to the very last penny the expense I went to on your
account; no small sum, let me tell you. I had prepared, you must
know, a lettuce a-piece, three snails, two eggs, and a barley cake,
with some sweet wine and snow, (the snow most certainly I shall
charge to your account, as a rarity that will not keep.) Olives,
beet-root, gourds, onions, and a thousand other dainties equally
sumptuous. You should. likewise have been entertained either with
an interlude, the rehearsal of a poem, or a piece of music,
whichever you preferred; or (such was my liberality) with all three.
But the oysters, sows'-bellies, sea-urchins, and dancers from Cadiz
of a certain -- I know not who, were, it seems, more to your taste.
You shall give satisfaction, how, shall at present be a secret.

Oh! you have behaved cruelly, grudging your friend, --had almost
said yourself ;--and upon second thoughts I do say so ;--in this way:
for how agreeably should we have spent the evening, in laughing,
trifling, and literary amusements! You may sup, I confess, at many
places more splendidly; but nowhere with more unconstrained
mirth, simplicity, and freedom: only make the experiment, and if
you do not ever after excuse yourself to your other friends, to come
to me, always put me off to go to them. Farewell.

XII

To SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS

You tell me in your letter that you are extremely alarmed by a
dream; apprehending that it forebodes some ill success to you in
the case you have undertaken to defend; and, therefore, desire that